Google Reveals 77 Percent of Its Online Traffic Is Encrypted
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

SAN FRANCISCO — Google is disclosing how much of the traffic to its search engine and other services is being protected from hackers as part of its push to encrypt all online activity.

Encryption shields 77 percent of the requests sent from around the world to Google’s data centers, up from 52 percent at the end of 2013, according to company statistics released Tuesday.

The numbers cover all Google services expect its YouTube video site, which has more than 1 billion users. Google plans to add YouTube to its encryption breakdown by the end of this year.

Encryption is a security measure that scrambles transmitted information so it’s unintelligible if it’s intercepted by a third party.

Google began emphasizing the need to encrypt people’s online activities after confidential documents leaked in 2013 by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden revealed that the U.S. government had been vacuuming up personal data transferred over the Internet. The surveillance programs exploited gaping holes in unencrypted websites.

While rolling out more encryption on its services, Google has been trying to use the clout of its influential search engine to prod other websites to strengthen their security.

In August 2014, Google revised its secret formula for ranking websites in its search order to boost those that automatically encrypted their services. The change meant websites risked being demoted in Google’s search results and losing visitors if they didn’t embrace encryption.

Google is highlighting its own progress on digital security while the FBI and Apple Inc. are locked in a court battle over access to an encrypted iPhone used by one of the two extremist killers behind the mass shootings in San Bernardino, California, in December.

Google joined several other major technology companies to back Apple in its refusal to honor a court order to unlock the iPhone, arguing that it would require special software that could be exploited by hackers and governments to pry their way into other encrypted devices.

In its encryption crusade, Google’s is trying to make it nearly impossible for government spies and other snoops from deciphering personal information seized while in transit over the Internet.

“Our aim with this project is to hold ourselves accountable and encourage others to encrypt so we can make the web even safer for everyone,” Google encryption “evangelists” Rutledge Chin Feman and Tim Willis wrote in a blog post.

The statistics show that Google’s Gmail service is completely encrypted as long as the correspondence remains confined to Gmail. Mail exchanges between Gmail and other email services aren’t necessarily encrypted.

Google’s next most frequently encrypted services are maps (83 percent of traffic) and advertising (77 percent, up from just 9 percent at the end of 2013). Encryption frequency falls off for Google’s news service (60 percent) and finance (58 percent).

Google, owned by Alphabet Inc., says it’s still trying to overcome some of the technical problems that have made it more difficult to encrypt some of its services. Some older devices are also unable to handle modern encryption standards, according to Google.

Nearly 96 percent of Google’s unencrypted traffic comes from mobile devices.

個資不怕駭 Google強化網路資料加密

77%數據受到保護

據Google公司周二釋出的統計資料，從全世界送往Google數據中心的資料，已有77%受到加密保護，遠高於2013年的52%。

Google所指的77%，涵蓋YouTube以外所有的服務範圍。YouTube的用戶多達10億，Google計畫在今年之內公布YouTube的加密統計。Google正努力將所有網路活動資訊加密。

史諾登2013年踢爆美國國家安全局監控人民網路資訊的「稜鏡計畫」，該監控計畫從未加密網站的漏洞取得訊息，此後，Google開始強調加密用戶網路活動資訊的重要性。

透過推展資訊加密的計畫，Google正用它的影響力刺激其他搜尋引擎跟進強化安全系統。

2014年8月，Google修正演算法，提升那些自動加密網站的搜尋排名。這項改變使那些不加密的網站被搜尋到的機率降低，若他們不轉向加密編碼，瀏覽人次就會減少。

去年12月發生聖伯納地諾槍擊案，FBI和蘋果正對凶手手機解鎖案一戰打得如火如荼，Google選在這個時機點突顯該公司在安全機制上的進展。蘋果以可能遭到駭客或政府有心利用為由，拒絕向官方提供有助解鎖手機的特殊程式，Google也是許多聲援蘋果的大型科技公司之一。

在這場加密聖戰裡，Google試圖讓政府和駭客幾乎不可能解碼網路傳輸中的私人訊息。

「這項計畫的目的，是讓我們對此負責，同時也鼓勵其他公司跟進加密保護的行列，創造一個更安全的網路空間。」Google的兩名加密「傳道者」費曼和威里斯在部落格貼文中表示。

Google地圖、廣告 受到最嚴密保護

數據顯示，如果是在Gmail的服務範圍內互相通信，則資料受到完全加密保護，但Gmail與其他信箱系統的通信資訊則不完全受到保護。其次最頻繁受到加密保護的服務是Google地圖和廣告，地圖有83%的網路流量受到保護，而廣告則是從2013年底的9%一舉躍升至77%。

Google的母公司Alphabet表示，一些老舊裝置無法適用現代編碼標準，還有技術問題尚待克服。在Google未加密編碼的網路流量中，有96%來自行動裝置。

原文參照：
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2016/03/15/us/ap-us-google-encryption.html

2016-03-16．聯合晚報．A6．國際焦點．編譯高岱如